


I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

by Poetry



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-30
Updated: 2010-03-30
Packaged: 2017-10-08 13:18:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor doesn't always win the battle against the nightmares.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yamx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yamx/gifts).



> The title of this piece is from an Emily Dickinson poem which I highly recommend. Unbeta'd, so all stupidities are mine.

Sometimes, his companions have bad dreams.

He tiptoes into Rose's room, his feet catlike along the carpeted floor. She cries out a little and shifts beneath the covers. Her nightmares are dim and nebulous, full of indistinct shapes whispering darkly through the fog, their clammy fingers clutching at her ankles and her hair.

The Doctor pulls at the twisted sheets until they're smooth, then pulls them up to her chin. He hums a tune he hardly ever dares to remember, until her breaths come slow and peaceful. He smiles gently, then slips out into the corridor.

Next, the TARDIS guides his steps to Jack's bedroom. He opens the door and walks in noiselessly. Jack is twitching beneath the sheets, his breath escaping in pitiful whimpers. The Doctor knows this nightmare, in all its intimate geography. It is hot and sharp, edged with blood-tempered steel. It reaches with ragged claws into places of pain, long hidden, and drags them raw and bloody to the surface.

He watches Jack tremble and cry out, knowing he is powerless against the nightmare, and it's torture.

**Author's Note:**

> A [Support Stacie](http://www.supportstacie.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=7) incentive drabble written for [Yamx](http://www.whofic.com/viewuser.php?uid=10074) to her prompt: "Jack &amp; Nine (Rose optional): torture (interpret however you want.)"


End file.
